The Building of the Stella Maris
It all started back went I was in high school. I was getting that feeling. You know that feeling, that you need to leave a mark on this world. Even then as a kid, I wanted to do something that many people do not even think about doing.
I remember sitting at the kitchen table eating lunch on a Saturday afternoon with the family. My dad is speaking to my mother something about a boat, something about when the kids are all out of the house, about building a dream boat, a sailing vessel to move on board to. Her name would be in his native tongue, Maltese: "Stella Maris" ...... "Star of the Sea" . That name never left me, such a grand name for sailing yacht.
That was it! I am going to build a boat, not just some toy boat, but a sailing vessel. I found in a Popular Science Magazine plans for a 16ft sailboat called the Petrel. I looked over the plans and they did not seem out of my realm of building. But alas when I looked in to cost of the list of wood alone it was over $3000. That was back in 1975. Well that was enough to suck the wind out of your sail. I saw that with my paper route, it was near impossible to save that amount.
Well, dad and mom never did get to build that boat but their dream was planted now and it was to grow in to a reality. I finally began building a 21ft Trailersailer back in the summer of 1992. Its been eight years so far that I have been working on her in my spare time. I know I would have been sailing a long time ago if I had bought instead of building. But the satisfaction of doing it all myself can never be matched. There was a summer or two that very little got done. So many things got in the way, someone told me that what got in the way was "life". I guess he's right!
Well at this point I have the hull finished and the cabin, centerboard case and flooring done now. I hope to have most if not all the general construction finished it summer. One more year for trim,and paint and another for hardware and rigging. I could be sailing by the year 2002. Some how my little boat is muted by that fact, but what the hell I built her and I did it my way!
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